I first saw Ran over thirty years ago while studying English in the
equivalent of Year 13 NCEA. It stayed with me as one of Kurosawa's best and
one of the best adaptations of a Shakespeare play. Re-watching it, I found that
the print is far better quality than the original and the story had lost none of
its drama.

I highly recommend this, as a Shakespearean re-imagining, or a Kurosawa
costume drama, or for itself.

One word of advice: set the language to Japanese and follow the sub-titles.
The English voice actors are OK but you'll have to work extra hard to tell them
apart and they lack the full resonance of the original.

Description

"An action epic to dwarf anything from Lucas or Spielberg" - Rolling Stone. This is a Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear. An aging warlord decides to split his kingdom between his three sons, who will live in three separate castles. The two eldest sons are quite happy, but the youngest thinks his father has gone mad, and predicts that it won't be long until the two older brothers are fighting with each other.